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Continue reading →: The Houses of the Russians by Robert Aickman – a Halloween Suggestion..
first published in the collection Painted Devils in 1964 and 1990 in The Unsettled Dust – read by Reece Shearsmith Aickman writes with subtlety, it is often what he leaves unsaid that makes his stories so unsettling and memorable. That is the case with the Russian family celebrating in an…
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Continue reading →: Inland again for a few daysAutumn is becoming winter here in Ostrobothnia, but the milder temperatures have hung on long enough for me to make November and some time indoors. With the hour changing last week also, it means that it is dark by 4:30 pm now. The last night that I didn’t sleep in…
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Continue reading →: Gaining Ground by Joan Barfoot
Canadian Literature – first published in 1978 Originally published in 1978 under the title Abra, and then by The Women’s Press in 1980 as Gaining Ground, this has now been reissued by Faber Books. Barfoot’s novel is a psychological portrait of the breakdown of a privileged housewife. She leaves her…
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Continue reading →: La Cocina
Mexico and USA – 2025 Within the stifling confines of a Times Square restaurant, a tempestuous staff of primarily immigrant cooks and waitresses, struggle with their legal management to handle the frenzied lunch rush. Rather than focusing on the grind of food preparation the focus is on the arduous journey…
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Continue reading →: Vaasa weekend, and looking back a few years..The campsite at Vaasa is closed for winter, and closed with gates so it doesn’t offer a staff-less winter service that most of the other city sites do. I was keen to have a day around the city, so opted for the golf course, which is open but with a…
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Continue reading →: Money To Burn by Ricardo Piglia
translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Amanda Hopkinson – published 2004 This is my second Piglia novel, the other being Target in the Night. Both have been enjoyable, he writes with a certain style of noir that is quite Latin American, always with a strong sense of of location and…
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Continue reading →: West of Replot Island, Kvarken ArchipelagoThe Swedish High Coast and the Kvarken Archipelago in Finland form a joint UNESCO World Heritage Site. The last Ice Age, land uplift and sea have shaped the scenery. During the Ice Age, the inland ice was at its thickest around this area. The ice, about 3 kilometres thick, pressed…
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Continue reading →: City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
Irish Literature – published 2012 Barry’s fictional Bohane, was a formerly great city on the west coast of Ireland that over the course of 40 years to has fallen into utter decay. It provides the setting for a hodgepodge of ethnicities, loyalties and double-crossings, rival gangs , vice and battles…
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Continue reading →: The Man With The Little Dog by Georges Simenon
translated from the French by Jean Stewart and published in 1964 Félix Allard is a typical Simenon protagonist of his romans durs oeuvre. He is an ordinary person living an unremarkable life going about his daily mundane routine, bothered though by petty grievances, regrets and feelings of uselessness. These Simenon…
To live more widely
supera superiora sequi
SafeReturnDoubtful is my alias. Rua is my fox red labrador pup, born 14 Feb 2026 and learning fast..
Where is Rua?
I was so much older then…
Quote of the Week
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, ‘What road do I take?’ The cat asked, ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it really doesn’t matter, does it?’
Lewis Carroll
